Review: Evolutions – Oren Harman

This is the first book I’ve read in what feels like an age and I’m very much out of practice writing reviews, so let’s give this a go, shall we?

I’ve been in the mood to read non-fiction lately, and this was by far and away not what I was expecting when I picked it up. The way this book is written is far more poetic and ‘flowery’ than I was anticipating from a book in the popular science section of my local Waterstones to be.

I thought this book was going to be something that combined theology, mythology and evolution in a factual way – explained the origins of myths from a scientific point of view and instead it was a book which gave a personality to the universe. It could easily be in the fiction section of a book shop because it reads like flash fiction, just drawing inspiration on science and nature and, honestly, parts of it are breathtaking. As a scientist, however lapsed I am, it’s a very surreal experience to read the hard facts in and amongst such literary language.

While I loved how this book was written, and I shouldn’t judge a book based on what I was expecting. I think for someone maybe dabbling in popular science, this could be a good stepping stone between fact and fiction. For me the best part of the book wasn’t his wax poetic about the universe, but the essay section at the end. While it felt like an abrupt change in pace, it actually gave analysis to the first two thirds and provided references both for and against the mythology that was drawn. That’s what I wanted when I picked it up.

It also is worth saying that this is very binary in representation of gender and sexuality, which does grind my gears. Even when talking about asexual entities he was assigning gender to them and completely ignoring non-binary sex/gender (which is not just some modern development, it exists in history as long as life has been evolving).

Overall, a solid 3 stars, not sure it’ll be one I read again though – and I’d wait for the paperback, frankly.